Systems and Methods for Providing Beacon-Based Notifications

ABSTRACT

Systems and method of providing beacon-based notifications are provided. More particularly, an identifying signal can be received from a beacon device. A geographic location of a user device can be determined based at least in part on the identifying signal. At least a portion of time-based contextual beacon data can then be obtained based at least in part on spatial-temporal data associated with a user. One or more notifications associated with the contextual beacon data can then be determined. The one or more notifications can indicative of information corresponding to the beacon device, and can be provided for display on a user device.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to beacon devices and moreparticularly to providing notifications associated with one or morebeacon devices to a user.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, location based functionality associated with mobilecomputing devices has become increasingly popular. Location basedfunctionality can allow a user device, such as a smart phone, tablet orwearable computing device, to receive information and to perform actionsassociated with the information. Such location based functionality canbe implemented, for instance, through the use of beacon devices. Beacondevices are a recent technology that can be used, for instance, indetermining proximity and location. A beacon device is a small, lowcost, self-contained device that can periodically provide (e.g.broadcast using a short range wireless communication technology)information. A user device can receive the information and use theknowledge of the identity of the beacon device and proximity to thebeacon device for various purposes, including determining location,communication, asset tracking, retail identification, safety, etc.

SUMMARY

Aspects and advantages of embodiments of the present disclosure will beset forth in part in the following description, or may be learned fromthe description, or may be learned through practice of the embodiments.

One example aspect of the present disclosure is directed to a computerimplemented method of providing notifications to a user. The methodincludes detecting, by one or more computing devices, a beacon device.The method further includes obtaining, by the one or more computingdevices, at least a portion of time-based contextual data associatedwith the beacon device. The at least a portion of time-based contextualdata is identified based at least in part on spatial-temporal dataassociated with a user. The method further includes determining, by theone or more computing devices, one or more notifications based at leastin part on the time-based contextual data. The method further includesproviding for display, by the one or more computing devices, at leastone of the one or more notifications.

Other aspects of the present disclosure are directed to systems,apparatus, tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media, userinterfaces and devices for scanning for beacon devices.

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of various embodimentswill become better understood with reference to the followingdescription and appended claims. The accompanying drawings, which areincorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrateembodiments of the present disclosure and, together with thedescription, serve to explain the related principles.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Detailed discussion of embodiments directed to one of ordinary skill inthe art is set forth in the specification, which makes reference to theappended figures, in which:

FIG. 1 depicts an example beacon device system according to exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 depicts an example beacon device system according to exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow diagram of an example method of providingnotifications according to example embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 4 depicts a diagram of example calendar data associated with abeacon device according to example embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 depicts a diagram of example calendar data associated with a useraccording to example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 depicts an example notification according to example embodimentsof the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 depicts example travel directions according to exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 depicts a flow diagram of an example method of providingnotifications according to example embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 9 depicts a flow diagram of an example method of providingnotifications according to example embodiments of the present disclosure

FIG. 10 depicts an example computing system according to exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments, one or moreexamples of which are illustrated in the drawings. Each example isprovided by way of explanation of the embodiments, not limitation of theinvention. In fact, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art thatvarious modifications and variations can be made to the embodimentswithout departing from the scope or spirit of the present disclosure.For instance, features illustrated or described as part of oneembodiment can be used with another embodiment to yield a still furtherembodiment. Thus it is intended that aspects of the present disclosurecover such modifications and variations.

Overview

Example aspects of the present disclosure are directed to providingnotifications associated with a beacon device. A beacon device can be acommunication device having a known location that periodicallybroadcasts (e.g. using short range wireless communication technology)information identifying the beacon device. A beacon device can be, forinstance, a radio frequency (RF) beacon device (e.g. a Bluetooth™ LowEnergy (BLE) beacon device), an infrared beacon device, or a radiofrequency identification (RFID) tag.

One or more user devices (e.g. smartphone, tablet, wearable computingdevice, or any other suitable computing device capable of being carriedby a user while in operation) can scan for and receive information frombeacon devices. In particular, a user device can receive the informationidentifying the beacon device (e.g. universally unique ID, a URL, asequence of bytes, an encrypted identifier, etc.) and can use thisinformation to ascertain other information associated with the beacondevice. This other information can be obtained, for instance, from aserver that uses the beacon identification to access the information.This information provided by the server can also be customized based onuser information such as settings, search history, location history orother user information. The information provided by the server caninclude, for instance, location information (e.g. latitude, longitudecoordinates) that the user device can use to determine proximity to thebeacon device, and thus to a corresponding geographic location. This canbe used, for instance, for navigation purposes. The beacon device canalso be used to provide information, for instance, in the form of anotification or an application associated with the beacon device.

Such information can be updated over time. For instance, a user whovisits a particular café may be provided a menu for the café on a userdevice associated with the user. The provided menu may vary, forinstance, based on whether the café is currently serving breakfast,lunch or dinner, or based on the specials for a particular day.Additionally, the relevance of the provided information can varyaccording to the desires of a user. For instance, a user who enters aconference room for a meeting may wish to view information associatedwith the meeting, but a user who enters the conference room for anotherpurpose may not wish to view the information associated with themeeting. Typically, information associated with a beacon device ismanaged and updated manually, which can be inefficient and inconvenient.

In some embodiments, in order to obtain the benefits of the techniquesdescribed herein, the user may be required to allow the collection andanalysis of location information associated with the user or the userdevice. Therefore, in some embodiments, users may be provided with anopportunity to control settings associated with whether programs orfeatures collect such information. If the user does not allow collectionand use of such signals, then the user may not receive the benefits ofthe techniques described herein. For instance, changes to these settingscan cause scanning for one or more beacon devices to be enabled ordisabled. The user can also be provided with tools to revoke or modifyconsent. In addition, in some embodiments, certain information or datacan be treated in one or more ways before it is stored or used, so thatpersonally identifiable information is removed.

According to example aspects of the present disclosure, contextual dataassociated with a beacon device and spatial-temporal data associatedwith a user can be analyzed to determine information that is relevant tothe user. In particular, an identifying signal from one or more beacondevices can be received by a user device and used to determinetime-based contextual data associated with the beacon device. Suchcontextual beacon data can be stored, for instance, in a remotecomputing device such as a server or database. In particular, thecontextual beacon data can be derived from a calendar associated withthe beacon device having different data associated with different datesand times.

In example aspects of the present disclosure, the time-based contextualdata can be determined based on spatial-temporal data associated withthe user. This spatial-temporal data may be stored in a memory of theuser device, or may be stored in a remote computing device such as adatabase or server. The spatial-temporal data can include the user'slocation determined, for instance, from the identifying signal from thebeacon device. In alternative embodiments, the user's location can bedetermined at least in part by a positioning system associated with theuser device (e.g. GPS or other positioning system), and/or a networkbased (e.g. WiFi, cellular network, etc.) location determination.

The spatial-temporal data can further include, for instance, time-baseddata associated with the user. The time-based data can include the dateand time at which the beacon device is detected (e.g. the current time),or some other time, such as a user-specified time. In exampleembodiments, the time-based data can include the user's scheduled tasksor events and can be organized, for instance, in a calendar. Forinstance, in continuing the above example regarding the conference room,the spatial-temporal data can indicate that the user has a meetingscheduled in the conference room at a particular time on a particulardate.

Contextual beacon data can include, for instance, calendar dataassociated with the beacon device that corresponds to the time andlocation indicated in the spatial-temporal data. In example embodiments,contextual beacon data can further include beacon calendar data thatcorresponds to the calendar data indicated in the spatial-temporal data.In particular, if a concurrence can be found between the beacon calendardata and the user calendar data, contextual beacon data associated withthe concurrence can be determined to be relevant to a user. Aconcurrence can be found, for instance, if the beacon calendar data andthe user calendar data are indicative of the same event or occurrence ata particular time. For instance, if the calendar data for the beacondevice associated with the conference room indicates that there is ameeting currently being held in the conference room and the calendardata for the user indicates that the user has a currently scheduledmeeting in the conference room, a concurrence can be found. Accordingly,the relevant contextual beacon data can be indicative of the meeting.

In example embodiments, the relevant contextual beacon data can includeall of the contextual beacon data for the time indicated in thespatial-temporal data, or a subset of the contextual beacon data forthat time. The subset can include only the contextual beacon data thatis determined to be relevant to the user. For example, if the contextualbeacon data indicates that there are two meetings simultaneouslyscheduled for the conference room, the spatial-temporal data can beanalyzed to determine which meeting the user is scheduled to attend. Therelevant contextual beacon data (e.g. the subset) can then be indicativeonly of the correct meeting.

Once the contextual beacon data is determined, one or more notificationscan be determined. A notification can be associated with the contextualbeacon data. In example embodiments, the notifications can be determinedfor all of the contextual beacon data or only for relevant contextualbeacon data. A notification can be indicative of informationcorresponding to the contextual beacon data. For instance, if thecontextual beacon data indicates a meeting scheduled in a conferenceroom, the corresponding information can include an agenda for themeeting, a list of attendees, etc. The notifications can then beprovided for display by the user device. The notification can bedisplayed, for instance, as an icon in a notification bar, as a pop-upnotification, and/or in any other suitable manner. The notification caninclude a link to the corresponding information. Upon user interactionwith the notification, the user device can display the information, forinstance, as a web page, as HTML presented in a webview, as an externalapplication, or as part of the user device's operating system.

In alternative embodiments, a notification can be indicative of otherinformation determined to be relevant to a user. For instance, anotification can include a link to travel directions to a destinationdetermined to be relevant to the user. For instance, in continuing theconference room example from above, if the spatial-temporal data for theuser indicates that the user does not have a currently scheduled (orupcoming) meeting in the conference room (e.g., if no concurrence can bedetermined between the beacon and user calendars), a notification caninclude information indicating that the user is in the wrong location.In an example embodiment, if the spatial-temporal data indicates thatthe user has a currently scheduled meeting in a different conferenceroom, the notification can include a link to travel directions to thecorrect conference room. Such travel directions can include interiordirections within a building, and/or exterior directions to anotherbuilding or location.

In example embodiments, the user device or other suitable device canprioritize and rank the determined notifications and provide for displaya subset of the ranked notifications that are above a prioritythreshold. In particular, the ranking can include a determination ofwhich information is most relevant to a user. The ranking can be basedon factors such as the user's location relative to one or more beacondevices, the user's prior interactions with notifications, the user'ssearch history, other users' interactions with similar notifications,machine learning techniques (e.g. spam recognition), the user's locationhistory, etc. Once the notifications have been prioritized and ranked,the user device can provide for display one or more of the notificationsthat are above the priority threshold (e.g., the top three most relevantinstances of user specific beacon information).

In further example embodiments, duplicate notifications can be filteredsuch that the user device only displays one notification associated witha particular instance of information. For example, if multiplenotifications are determined that are associated with the same orsimilar information, the user device can filter and remove all but oneof the notifications such that the user device only displays onenotification associated with the information. In still further exampleembodiments, stale notifications can be removed from display. Stalenotifications can include notifications associated with information thatis no longer relevant to a user. For instance, in continuing the aboveexample, if the user leaves the conference room, or if the meetingconcludes, the notification associated with the meeting is no longerrelevant to the user, and can be removed from display on the userdevice.

Example Beacon Device Systems

FIG. 1 depicts an example system 100 according to example embodiments ofthe present disclosure. System 100 can include a plurality of beacondevices 102-110, one or more observing entities 112 and 114, and atleast one server 118. Beacon devices 102-110 can be used for manydifferent applications, including, for example, co-presence (e.g. twoentities becoming aware of each other), location-based gaming, assettracking, beacon device localization or observing entity localization,telemetry, information provisioning (e.g. use of an observing entity toobtain various information such as semantic information or geographicinformation associated with beacon devices 102-110 as the observingentity moves about the world), intra-beacon communication, paymentsystems, etc. Other applications can include providing informationassociated with a business, such as a menu for a restaurant, providinginformation associated with a music festival, providing informationassociated with a transit schedule, etc. The present disclosure providesa general system that can be applicable to the above noted applicationsor other applications as well.

Beacon devices 102-110 can be computing devices that are configured toemit messages. For example, the messages can include data that isbroadcast by the beacon devices 102-110. In example embodiments, thedata can be used for the purpose of being “noticed” without requiring atwo-way connection. Thus, in such embodiments, the entirety of theinteraction between the beacon devices 102-110 and the observingentities 112 and 114 can be performed without requiring a connectionbetween the observing entity and the beacon device or a connectionbetween the beacon device and the server. Instead, all relevantinformation for the interaction is contained within the data emitted bythe beacon device. Limiting beacon device interaction to thebroadcasting of data can provide a nominal behavior that allows energyconsumption and service life to be modeled and reasonably predicted. Inalternative embodiments, beacon devices 102-110 can include computingdevices that use two-way communication. For instance, a BLE beacondevice using active scanning can implement two-way communication.

As an example, the beacon devices 102-110 can broadcast the data usingshort range wireless communication technologies such as, for example,Bluetooth, Bluetooth low energy, ZigBee, Near Field Communication, WiFiDirect, or other technologies. Furthermore, although short rangewireless communication technologies are provided as an example, anycommunication method can be used to transmit data from the beacondevices 102-110 to the observing entities 112 and 114, including, forexample, wired connections, general radio frequency communication,optical communication, infrared communication, magnetic communication,or other communication methods.

In embodiments in which beacon devices employ Bluetooth low energy (BLE)technology for broadcasting, each message can carry a 31-byte payload.As noted, messages can be broadcast events that are capable of beingreceived and processed by any listening device (e.g. user device).Further, the above example implementation using BLE technology isprovided as an example only. Other suitable communication protocolshaving different frame formats or channel assignments can be used, aswell. In addition, as certain protocols are modified or replaced overtime, the present disclosure can be easily adapted for implementationusing such new protocols.

Server 118 can include one or more computing devices configured tocommunicate with observing entities 112 and 114 over a network 116. Asan example, server 118 can be one or more server computing devices. Inthe instance that a plurality of server computing devices are used, theserver computing devices can be arranged according to any suitablecomputing architecture, including sequential computing architectures,parallel computing architectures, or combinations thereof. Observingentities 112 and 114 can be user devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets,wearable computing devices, or any other suitable mobile computingdevice capable of being carried by a user while in operation), such asuser device 122 depicted in FIG. 2.

Network 116 can be any type of communications network, such as a localarea network (e.g., intranet), wide area network (e.g., Internet), orsome combination thereof and can include any number of wired or wirelesslinks. In general, communication between the server 118 and observingentities 112 and 114 can be carried via any type of wired and/orwireless connection, using a wide variety of communication protocols(e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, SMTP, FTP), encodings or formats (e.g., HTML, XML),and/or protection schemes (e.g., VPN, secure HTTP, SSL).

Furthermore, although each observing entity 112 and 114 is shown ascommunicating directly with the server 118 over network 116, there maybe any number of intervening devices between the observing entity 112 or114 and the server 118. As an example, in some embodiments, groups ofobserving entities can be organized in a network (e.g. a mesh network)and can relay messages back and forth from a particular observing entityto the server 118.

FIG. 2 depicts an example beacon device system 120 according to exampleembodiments of the present disclosure. System 120 can be a particularimplementation of system 100 and can include a user device 122, a server124, and a beacon device 126. User device 122 can communicate withserver 124 over a network 128. Network 128 can be any suitable type ofcommunications network such as network 116 in FIG. 1. According toexample embodiments of the present disclosure, beacon device 126 canprovide (e.g. broadcast using a short range wireless communicationtechnology) an identifying signal to user device 122. Upon receiving theidentifying signal, user device 122 can determine a geographic locationof beacon device 126, and in turn, a geographic location of user device122. For instance, user device 122 can communicate with server 124 todetermine the geographic location of beacon device 126. User device 122can further communicate with server 124 to determine other informationassociated with beacon device 126.

Server 124 can correspond to server 118 in FIG. 1 and can include one ormore databases such as beacon location database 130 and beaconinformation database 132. Beacon location database 130 can include dataindicative of a geographic location of one or more beacon devices.Beacon information database 132 can include data associated with one ormore beacon devices, such as beacon device 126. In example embodiments,beacon information database 132 can include data associated with thelocation of beacon device 126, such as a restaurant or a business. Forinstance, if beacon device 126 is located in a café, beacon informationdatabase 132 can include information associated with the café, such as amenu or an advertisement for the café and/or discount coupons or specialoffers associated with the café. In example embodiments, beaconinformation database 132 can organize the information by date and time,for instance with a calendar. In particular, beacon information database132 can include a calendar having different information associated withdifferent dates and times. For instance, the calendar can associate abreakfast menu with the times of the day that the café serves breakfast,and a lunch menu with the times of the day that the café serves lunch.Further, the calendar can associate different menus with differentdates, depending, for instance, on the daily or weekly specials, orother various changes to the menu.

As another example, a beacon device (e.g. beacon device 126) can belocated at a particular stage during a music festival. In such example,beacon information database 132 can include information associated withthe different musical acts that play on the stage throughout thefestival. In particular, beacon information database 132 can includeinformation associated with the various musical acts and can associatethe information with the respective times at which the musical acts playon the stage. For instance, such information can include a biography ofthe musical act, a set list, upcoming tour dates, a link to the musicalact's website, advertisements, discount coupons for music ormerchandise, etc.

Referring still to FIG. 2, user device 122 can include user informationdatabase 134. User information database 134 can include informationassociated with a user of user device 122. For instance, userinformation database 134 can include information organized by time anddate, such as with a calendar. In particular, the calendar can includethe user's upcoming scheduled tasks and/or events, such as for instance,upcoming meetings, dinner reservations, or assignments. Such calendardata can be organized according to the date and time at which they areto occur. User information database 134 can further include a determinedgeographic location of user device 122. As described above, thegeographic location can be determined based on the beacon devicelocation, and/or other suitable positioning techniques (e.g., GPS ornetwork based techniques).

Example Methods of Providing Beacon-based Notifications

FIG. 3 depicts a flow diagram of an example method (200) of providingbeacon-based notifications according to example embodiments of thepresent disclosure. It will be appreciated that method (200) can beimplemented by one or more computing devices, such as one or more of thecomputing devices depicted in FIG. 1. In addition, FIG. 3 depicts stepsperformed in a particular order for purposes of illustration anddiscussion. Those of ordinary skill in the art, using the disclosuresprovided herein, will understand that the various steps of any of themethods disclosed herein can be omitted, adapted, modified, rearranged,or expanded in various ways without deviating from the scope of thepresent disclosure.

At (202), method (200) can include detecting a beacon device. Inparticular, detecting the beacon device can include receiving anidentifying signal from the beacon device. For instance, the signal caninclude a universally unique ID, a URL, a sequence of bytes, anencrypted identifier, etc. At (204), method (200) can includedetermining a geographic location of the user device. The geographiclocation can be determined, for instance, based at least in part on theidentifying signal from the beacon device. In particular, upon receivingan identifying signal from a beacon device, the geographic location ofthe beacon device can be determined, for instance, through communicationwith a beacon location database, such as beacon location database 130. Acorresponding location of the user device can then be determined basedat least in part on the location of the beacon device.

At (206), method (200) can include obtaining at least a portion ofcontextual beacon data associated with the beacon device. As indicatedabove, contextual beacon data can include time-based data (e.g. calendardata) associated with a beacon device, and can be determined based atleast in part on spatial-temporal data associated with the user. Inparticular, a beacon device can have various associated time-based data.Such data can be organized as a calendar having different data fordifferent dates and times. For instance, a beacon device associated witha particular café can have associated data relating to the café. Thedata can be organized according to date and time (e.g. breakfast isserved from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM, and lunch is served from 11:00 AM to2:00 PM).

FIG. 4 depicts a diagram of example calendar data 140 according toexample embodiments of the present disclosure. Calendar data 140 can becalendar data associated with a particular beacon device, and can bestored, for instance, in beacon information database 132 of FIG. 2.Calendar data 140 can include data associated with the location of abeacon device. For instance, calendar data 140 includes a schedule ofevents for a cafeteria on an office campus. As shown, the calendar datacorresponding to 11:30 AM on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015 indicates thatlunch will be served in the cafeteria at that time. Further, thecalendar data corresponding to 12:00 PM on January 22 indicates thatlunch will be served at that time and that a Team 2 meeting has beenscheduled in the cafeteria for that time.

In example embodiments, the contextual beacon data can be determinedbased at least in part on spatial-temporal data associated with a user.Spatial-temporal data can include a current location of a user and atime (e.g. a current time or a user-specified time). Spatial-temporaldata can further include data indicative of the user's upcomingscheduled tasks or events (e.g. calendar data). For instance, FIG. 5depicts a diagram of example calendar data 142 associated with a user.Calendar data 142 can be stored, for instance, in user informationdatabase 134. It will be appreciated that calendar data 142 can bestored in other suitable locations such as in a database associated witha remote computing device (e.g. server 124). Calendar data 142 caninclude the user's upcoming scheduled tasks and/or events. For instance,at 12:00 PM on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, calendar data 142 indicates thatthe user has a meeting scheduled in the cafeteria.

Calendar data 140 can be analyzed in view of the spatial-temporal datato determine contextual beacon data. In particular, the contextualbeacon data can include the beacon calendar data that corresponds to thetime and location indicated in the spatial-temporal data. For instance,if a user enters the cafeteria (and the user device detects a beacondevice associated with the cafeteria) at 11:00 AM on Jan. 22, 2015, thecalendar data for that time can indicate that lunch is being served inthe cafeteria. Accordingly, the contextual beacon data can be associatedwith the lunch.

In embodiments in which the spatial-temporal data further includescalendar data associated with the user (e.g. calendar data 142), atleast a portion of the contextual beacon data can be determined to berelevant to the user. Such determination can be made, for instance, if aconcurrence can be determined between the beacon calendar data 140 andthe user calendar data 142. For instance, if the user enters thecafeteria at 12:00 PM on January 22 (or, for instance, several minutesbeforehand), the calendar data can indicate that lunch is served in thecafeteria and that Team 2 has a scheduled meeting in the cafeteria at12:00. Additionally, the spatial-temporal data can further indicate thatthe user has a meeting scheduled for the cafeteria at 12:00. Based onthe calendar data and the spatial-temporal data it can be determinedthat the user is in the cafeteria for the Team 2 meeting. Accordingly,the contextual beacon data associated with the meeting can be determinedto be relevant to the user.

In example embodiments, the relevant contextual beacon data can includeall of the contextual beacon data for the indicated time or the relevantcontextual beacon data can include only a subset of the contextualbeacon data. For instance, if the contextual beacon data indicates thatthere are multiple meetings simultaneously scheduled for a conferenceroom and the spatial-temporal data indicates that the user has a meetingscheduled for the conference room, the contextual beacon data and thespatial-temporal data can be analyzed to determine a concurrence, and todetermine which meeting the user is scheduled to attend. Upon thisdetermination, the relevant contextual beacon data can be indicative ofthe correct meeting, and not the other meetings.

In some embodiments, it can be determined that no contextual beacon datais relevant to the user. For instance, if the user enters the cafeteriaat 2:00 PM on Friday, Jan. 23, 2015, the contextual beacon data canindicate that Team 3 has a currently scheduled meeting in the cafeteria.However, the spatial-temporal data can indicate that the user has ameeting currently scheduled in Conference Room A. Accordingly, it can bedetermined that the user is in the wrong location. As will be describedfurther below, a notification can then be provided to the userindicating that the user is in the wrong location. In exampleembodiments, the notification can provide a link to travel directionsfrom the user's present location (e.g. the cafeteria) to the correctlocation (e.g. Conference Room A).

Referring back to FIG. 3 at (208), method (200) can include determiningone or more notifications based at least in part on the contextualbeacon data. As described above, a notification can be indicative ofinformation corresponding to contextual beacon data. For instance, ifcontextual beacon data associated with a café indicates that lunch iscurrently being served, the corresponding information can include alunch menu. As another example, if contextual beacon data associatedwith a particular stage at a music festival indicates that a musical actis currently playing on the stage, the corresponding information caninclude information relating to the band, such as a band biography, aset list, etc.

In example embodiments, notifications may be determined only forrelevant contextual beacon data. For instance, in the scenario wheremultiple meetings are simultaneously scheduled for a conference room,notifications may only be determined for the meeting that the user isscheduled to attend.

In alternative embodiments, a notification can be associated with otherinformation determined to be relevant to a user, such as traveldirections. For instance, if a user device detects a beacon devicelocated at a subway station, and the spatial-temporal data indicatesthat the user has an event scheduled within the next hour, anotification can be determined that includes a link to travel directionsfrom the user's current location to the location of the event. Thetravel directions can include subway routes and/or routes associatedwith other forms of transportation.

Once the notifications have been determined, at least one of thenotifications can be provided for display on the user device (210). Forinstance, FIG. 6 depicts an example notification 502 provided fordisplay on a user device according to example embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In particular, notification 502 can be displayed in anotification bar at the top of the screen, in a pop-up notification withtext, and/or in any other suitable manner. Notification 502 can beassociated with the contextual beacon data. Notification 502 can providea visual and/or audible indication to a user of further informationassociated with a beacon device. A notification can further provide anindication to a user by causing a user device to vibrate. For instance,notification 502 can include a link to travel directions from the user'scurrent location to the location of the event. Upon a user interactionwith the link, the travel directions can be provided for display.

For instance, FIG. 7 depicts example travel directions 504 according toexample embodiments of the present disclosure. Travel directions 504 caninclude directions from a current location of a user to a desiredlocation. Travel directions 504 can include subway routes and/or routesassociated with other forms of transportation. In example embodiments,travel directions 504 can further include directions within the interiorof a building and/or external directions outside of a building.

FIG. 8 depicts a flow diagram of an example method (300) of providingone or more notifications according to example embodiments of thepresent disclosure. At (302), method (300) can include determiningwhether multiple notifications have been generated. If only onenotification has been generated, (304) and (306) can be bypassed andmethod (300) can proceed to (308), which will be described in moredetail below. If more than one notification has been generated, at(304), method (300) can include filtering duplicate notifications. Aduplicate notification can be a notification associated with the same orsimilar information as another notification. For instance, if more thanone notification is indicative of the same information, all but one ofthese notifications can be filtered such that they are not provided fordisplay by the user device. Duplicate notifications can occur, forinstance, if multiple beacon devices are simultaneously detected, eachhaving the same or similar information. As another example, duplicatenotifications can occur if one beacon device has multiple instances ofthe same or similar information.

Once the duplicate notifications are filtered, method (300) can includeprioritizing and ranking the notifications (306). In particular, thenotifications can be ranked according to a determination of relevance tothe user. The determination can be based at least in part on a user'slocation (e.g., how close a user is to a specific location), the user'spast behavior regarding notifications (e.g., if the user regularlyignores notifications of this type), the user's search history, otherusers' behavior with similar notifications, machine-learning techniques(e.g., spam recognition), the user's location history (e.g., how oftenthe user travels to a location), etc. The notification determined to bemost relevant to the user can be ranked first, the next most relevantnotification can be ranked second, and so on. In alternativeembodiments, notifications can be ranked based at least in part onmerchant payments and/or advertisement auctions wherein advertisers canbid on advertisement locations.

At (308), method (300) can include removing stale notifications fromdisplay. Stale notifications can include notifications that are nolonger relevant to a user. For instance, if a user leaves a locationassociated with a beacon device, the notification may no longer berelevant. As another example, if the time period of an event at thelocation of the beacon device has expired, the notification may nolonger be relevant. Such stale notifications can be removed from displayby the user device.

Once the stale notifications are removed from display, method (300) caninclude providing for display one or more notifications (310). Inexample embodiments, an amount of notifications can be provided fordisplay up to a predetermined priority threshold. The priority thresholdcan be indicative of the maximum number of notifications to besimultaneously provided for display. For instance, if the prioritythreshold is three, and there are more than three notifications, thethree most relevant notifications can be provided for display (e.g., thenotifications ranked first, second, and third).

In example embodiments, the systems and methods provided herein can beimplemented using a client-server architecture. For instance, FIG. 9depicts a flow diagram of an example method (600) of providingnotifications according to example embodiments of the presentdisclosure. At (602), method (600) can include detecting, by a userdevice, a beacon device. For instance, detecting a beacon device caninclude receiving a signal from the beacon device indicative of anidentification the beacon device. At (604), the user device can providethe beacon device identification to a remote computing device. At (606)the remote computing device can receive the beacon deviceidentification. At (608) the remote computing device can determine alocation of the beacon device based at least in part on the beacondevice identification. At (610), the remote computing device can providethe beacon device location to the user device. At (612), the user devicecan receive the beacon device location.

At (614), the user device can determine a location of the user devicebased at least in part on the beacon device location. In alternativeembodiments, the user device can determine the user device locationusing other suitable location determination techniques (e.g. GPS, WiFi,cell network, etc.) At (616) the user device can provide the user devicelocation to the remote computing device. At (618), the remote computingdevice can receive the user device location.

At (620), the remote computing device can access time-based dataassociated with the beacon device and spatial-temporal data associatedwith the user. As indicated above, the time-based beacon data caninclude calendar data associated with the beacon device. Thespatial-temporal data can include the location of the user device, and atime (e.g. the current time and/or a user specified time). Thespatial-temporal data can further include calendar data associated witha user of the user device. For instance, in example embodiments thespatial-temporal data can be stored using the iCalendar standard(defined in RFC 5545). The spatial-temporal data can be stored in adatabase associated with the remote computing device or other computingdevice. In alternative embodiments, at least a portion of thespatial-temporal data can be stored in the user device.

At (622), the remote computing device can determine time-basedcontextual beacon data based at least in part on the spatial-temporaldata. At (624), the remote computing device can provide at least aportion of the contextual beacon data to the user device. At (626), theuser device can obtain the at least a portion of contextual beacon data.At (628) the user device can determine one or more notifications basedat least in part on the contextual beacon data. At (630), the userdevice can provide for display at least one of the one or morenotifications.

Example Computing System for Providing Beacon-based Notifications

FIG. 10 depicts an example computing system 400 that can be used toimplement the methods and systems providing beacon-based notificationsaccording to example aspects of the present disclosure. System 400 caninclude a user device 410. User device 410 can be any suitable type ofmobile computing device, such as a smartphone, tablet, cellulartelephone, wearable computing device, or any other suitable mobilecomputing device capable of being carried by a user while in operation.User device 410 can include one or more processor(s) 412 and one or morememory devices 414.

The one or more processor(s) 412 can include any suitable processingdevice, such as a microprocessor, microcontroller, integrated circuit,logic device, one or more central processing units (CPUs), graphicsprocessing units (GPUs) dedicated to efficiently rendering images orperforming other specialized calculations, and/or other processingdevices, such as a system on a chip (SoC) or a SoC with an integrated RFtransceiver. The one or more memory devices 414 can include one or morecomputer-readable media, including, but not limited to, non-transitorycomputer-readable media, RAM, ROM, hard drives, flash memory, or othermemory devices.

The one or more memory devices 414 can store information accessible bythe one or more processors 412, including instructions 416 that can beexecuted by the one or more processors 412. For instance, the memorydevices 414 can store instructions 416 for implementing one or moremodules configured to implement a scan module 420, a user data module422, a notification module 424, and/or various aspects of any of themethods disclosed herein. Scan module 420 can be configured to scan forone or more beacon devices. User data module 422 can be configured todetermine spatial-temporal data associated with a user. Notificationmodule 424 can be configured to generate and provide for display one ormore notifications associated with a beacon device.

The one or more memory devices 414 can also include data 418 that can beretrieved, manipulated, created, or stored by the one or more processors412. The data can include, for instance, beacon information, calendardata and/or other information.

It will be appreciated that the term “module” refers to computer logicutilized to provide desired functionality. Thus, a module can beimplemented in hardware, application specific circuits, firmware and/orsoftware controlling a general purpose processor. In one embodiment, themodules are program code files stored on the storage device, loaded intoone or more memory devices and executed by one or more processors or canbe provided from computer program products, for example computerexecutable instructions, that are stored in a tangible computer-readablestorage medium such as RAM, ROM, flash memory, hard disk or optical ormagnetic media. In example embodiments, modules can be implemented inhardware independent of the one or more processors. For instance, amodule can be implemented using a WiFi and/or Bluetooth transceiver,module or microcontroller. When software is used, any suitableprogramming language or platform can be used to implement the module.

User device 410 can include various input/output devices for providingand receiving information from a user, such as a touch screen, touchpad, data entry keys, speakers, and/or a microphone suitable for voicerecognition. For instance, user device 410 can have a display 415 forpresenting a user interface to a user. User device 410 can furtherinclude a communication system 417. Communication system 417 can be usedto communicate with a beacon device, such as beacon device 450.

User device 410 can further include a positioning system 419. Thepositioning system 419 can be any device or circuitry for determiningthe position of remote computing device. For example, the positioningdevice can determine actual or relative position by using a satellitenavigation positioning system (e.g. a GPS system, a Galileo positioningsystem, the GLObal Navigation satellite system (GLONASS), the BeiDouSatellite Navigation and Positioning system), an inertial navigationsystem, a dead reckoning system, based on IP address, by usingtriangulation and/or proximity to cellular towers or WiFi hotspots, WiFitime-of-flight, and/or other suitable techniques for determiningposition.

User device 410 can also include a network interface used to communicatewith one or more remote computing devices (e.g. server 430) over anetwork 440. The network interface can include any suitable componentsfor interfacing with one more networks, including for example,transmitters, receivers, ports, controllers, antennas, or other suitablecomponents.

In some implementations, the user device can be in communication with aremote computing device, such as a server 430 over network 440. Server430 can be one or more computing devices, such as described above withregard to server 118 in FIG. 1.

Similar to the user device 410, server 430 can include one or moreprocessor(s) 432 and a memory 434. The one or more processor(s) 432 caninclude one or more central processing units (CPUs), and/or otherprocessing devices. The memory 434 can include one or morecomputer-readable media and can store information accessible by the oneor more processors 432, including instructions 436 that can be executedby the one or more processors 432, and data 438. For instance, thememory 434 can store instructions 436 for implementing a beacon datamodule for determining time-based contextual beacon data associated witha beacon device.

Server 430 can also include a network interface used to communicate withcomputing device 410 over network 440. The network interface can includeany suitable components for interfacing with one more networks,including for example, transmitters, receivers, ports, controllers,antennas, or other suitable components.

Network 440 can be any type of communications network, such as a localarea network (e.g. intranet), wide area network (e.g. Internet),cellular network, or some combination thereof. Network 440 can alsoinclude a direct connection between user device 410 and server 430.Network 440 can include any number of wired or wireless links and can becarried out using any suitable communication protocol.

System 400 can further include one or more beacon devices, such asbeacon device 450. Beacon device 450 can broadcast messages such asdescribed with regard to beacon devices 102-110 in FIG. 1. Beacon device450 can be implemented using any suitable computing device(s). Althoughonly one beacon device is depicted in FIG. 10, it will be appreciated bythose skilled in the art that any suitable number of beacon devices canbe included in system 400.

The technology discussed herein makes reference to servers, databases,software applications, and other computer-based systems, as well asactions taken and information sent to and from such systems. One ofordinary skill in the art will recognize that the inherent flexibilityof computer-based systems allows for a great variety of possibleconfigurations, combinations, and divisions of tasks and functionalitybetween and among components. For instance, server processes discussedherein may be implemented using a single server or multiple serversworking in combination. Databases and applications may be implemented ona single system or distributed across multiple systems. Distributedcomponents may operate sequentially or in parallel.

While the present subject matter has been described in detail withrespect to specific example embodiments thereof, it will be appreciatedthat those skilled in the art, upon attaining an understanding of theforegoing may readily produce alterations to, variations of, andequivalents to such embodiments. Accordingly, the scope of the presentdisclosure is by way of example rather than by way of limitation, andthe subject disclosure does not preclude inclusion of suchmodifications, variations and/or additions to the present subject matteras would be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A computer-implemented method of providingnotifications to a user, the method comprising: detecting, by one ormore computing devices, a beacon device; obtaining, by the one or morecomputing devices, at least a portion of time-based contextual dataassociated with the beacon device; determining, by the one or morecomputing devices, a concurrence between at least a portion of the timebased-contextual data and user data associated with a user; responsiveto determining the concurrence, determining, by the one or morecomputing devices, one or more notifications based at least in part onthe time-based contextual data; and providing for display, by the one ormore computing devices, at least one of the one or more notifications.22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein detecting thebeacon device comprises receiving an identifying signal from the beacondevice.
 23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, furthercomprising providing, by the one or more computing devices, dataindicative of the identifying signal to a remote computing device;wherein obtaining at least a portion of time-based contextual datacomprises receiving, by the one or more computing devices, the at leasta portion of time-based contextual data from the remote computingdevice.
 24. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, furthercomprising: determining, by the one or more computing devices, ageographic location of the beacon device based at least in part on theidentifying signal; and determining, by the one or more computingdevices, a user location based at least in part on the geographiclocation of the beacon device.
 25. The computer implemented method ofclaim 21, wherein the time-based contextual data comprises calendar dataassociated with the beacon device.
 26. The computer-implemented methodof claim 25, wherein the user data comprises calendar data associatedwith the user.
 27. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, whereinthe user data comprises spatial temporal data comprising a user locationand either a current time or a user specified time.
 28. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving,by the one or more computing devices, a user input associated with theat least one of the one or more notifications; and responsive to theuser input, performing one or more actions associated with thetime-based contextual data.
 29. The computer-implemented method of claim28, wherein the one or more actions comprises providing for displaytravel directions to a destination determined to be relevant to a userbased at least in part on the user data.
 30. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 28, wherein the one or more actions comprises providingfor display information associated with the at least a portion oftime-based contextual data.
 31. The computer-implemented method of claim21, wherein providing for display at least one of the one or morenotifications further comprises ranking the one or more notificationsbased at least in part on the relevance of the notifications to theuser, and providing for display the notifications that are above apriority threshold.
 32. The computer-implemented method of claim 31,wherein the ranking is determined based at least in part on at least oneof a geographic location of the user, a search history of the user, or alocation history of the user.
 33. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 21, wherein providing for display at least one of the one or morenotifications further comprises identifying one or more duplicatenotifications, and filtering the one or more duplicate notificationssuch that the one or more duplicate notifications are not provided fordisplay to the user.
 34. A computing system comprising: one or moreprocessors; and one or more memory devices storing computer-readableinstructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause theone or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:detecting a beacon device; obtaining at least a portion of time-basedcontextual data associated with the beacon device; determining aconcurrence between at least a portion of the time based-contextual dataand user data associated with a user; responsive to determining theconcurrence, determining one or more notifications based at least inpart on the time-based contextual data; and providing for display atleast one of the one or more notifications.
 35. The computing system ofclaim 34, wherein the operations further comprise: determining alocation of the beacon device based at least in part on the beacondevice identification; providing the location of the beacon device tothe user device; and receiving, from the user device, a location of theuser device, the location of the user device being determined based atleast in part on the location of the beacon device.
 36. The computingsystem of claim 34, wherein the user data comprises a user location andeither a current time or a user specified time.
 37. One or morenon-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-readableinstructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the oneor more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:detecting a beacon device; obtaining at least a portion of time-basedcontextual data associated with the beacon device; determining aconcurrence between at least a portion of the time based-contextual dataand user data associated with a user; responsive to determining theconcurrence, determining one or more notifications based at least inpart on the time-based contextual data; and providing for display atleast one of the one or more notifications.
 38. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein theoperations comprise: receiving user input associated with the at leastone of the one or more notifications; and responsive to the user input,performing one or more actions associated with the time-based contextualdata.